Woman arrested for taking food thrown out by store

fired to? dam !

she must of been on tape

shouldnt of picked it up herself

i would of called someone to come get it

they broke down her door? why? ridiculouse

theft by finding? is that made up just for her?

what in the world ?

What's even more outrageous is the bill the taxpayer will have to foot for court fees, i estimate about £20,000?

The real criminals are the filthy rich supermarket owners that waste good food and the police who waste our money doing the capitalists bidding and hounding ordinary people.

Because of the power cut, refrigeration would have failed. Thawed goods cannot safely be re-frozen (ask your mother) and warmed chilled foods would be deemed legally unsaleable due to Health and Safety legislation.

The store dumped the food because they were legally obliged to. Not to do so would open them up to liability claims from anyone who ate store branded food still in date but not kept at the optimum conditions.

In the same way it is no longer acceptable to retail blown cans, due to the risk of botulism, retailers cannot sell food that might be considered "off" because of the risk of food poisoning. I would imagine some nicely sweated defrosted pies in a plastic bag would fall into this category - and I am sure this woman's family would not have thanked her for a dose of Staphylococcus or E. coli.

In the UK it is also law that any waste is the responsibility and belongs to the retailer even when in the waste receptacle and that there is a duty of care to ensure that waste is contained and disposed correctly, as not to do so has legal ramifications on the retailer. The waste has to be collected by controlled contractors at which point the "contract of responsibility" transfers to the local authority.

In the UK "dumpster diving" is illegal, as is picking through waste sites. Once rubbish arrives at a disposal site it legally belongs to the waste contractor.

So yes, the woman was technically breaking UK law; however, in this writer's opinion a caution would perhaps have been the better judgement than an arrest, along with an advisory on the potential risks she was unknowingly about to subject her family to.

(I find it more than slightly ironic that US posters complain of wastage, when their own retailers dump tonnes of edible produce daily in order that store consumer acceptable perfect specimens can be kept on display 24/7.)

So is this a troll post or do we live in a horrible state of waste and overuse. Capitalism sucks.

Outrageous. The store should have been cited for throwing it out in the first place!

This story is an outrage! And it's nearly as outrageous that decent-minded people would allow themselves to justify keeping people from access to disgarded food! What kind of messed up priorities do we have? Instead of mulling over the fact that there are laws that allow the persecution of needy people, there should be a hue and cry to raise laws in this country that make it illegal and criminal for any business or person to disgard food without first allowing it to be consumed by anyone who wants it. Would such a measure be in the advancement of commercial interests? Who cares! Would be completely and profoundly consistant with Biblical and Christian values? Yeah, and that is all that matters.

I don't know how it is over there, but here I believe the law is that if it's bagged up and sitting on the curb, it becomes public property. They've used that to prosecute, so why can't they use it to cut waste? Oh, of course. That's what these supermarket chains do. But yeah, this ish happens all the time. I work at a starbucks and the motto they drum into your head is over there is if it's open and it's not in use, throw it out. I can't tell you how much I've saved on soy milk since I started that job. It's terrible.

I live in las vegas & the hotels here pretty much does the same thing if your caught going threw there trash you will be arrested !I have a friend who works at famous daves & he tells me that they throw out slabs of ribs every nite & if any employee or rubbisher retrieves it there either fired or the police is called in the case of the rubbisher, simply put it's $$ over people!! They don't give a damn about anyone or anything just $$$$.

In America when something is thrown into the trash, its fair game to whomever wants to rifle through it.

I guess this means who ever found my wifes 2, 000$ wedding ring committed an felony? This is totally wrong & it seems as if the police don't have the since or training to make the rite judgement in any situation without being embarrassed at a later tyme, the police needs to think before they do & say stupid illegal things like arrest someone for feeding there family!!!

I think it's a very sad thing, when we arrest those who volunteer to recycle our waste, or repurpose it. The fact of the matter, is that it will not be missed, it was tossed into a waste bin.

If i toss out an old pair of shoes, and someone steals it from my trash can, it's not going to have any effect on me...but for whomever took the shoes, they now have some less fashionable running gear.

What's sad is dumpster diving is also illegal in the US.
The question I wonder is, Why is it illegal?
Is it because there's no warning label on the dumpster? i.e. Warning: Contents found within may cause illness. Rummage at your own risk.

On the ironic side, prison provides 3 square meals a day.
-How fucked up is that.

Dear lord... does the UK know real crime? their cops do not carry firearms correct?

Years ago a friend and I pulled behind a local market to avail ourselves of their dumpster and rid his Volkswagen of trash. We slid the dumpster door open and lo and behold, the interior was stacked high with pizzas. We touched one and it was still cool to the touch indicating it hadn't been there long. We tore the wrapping off one and gave it a thorough sniffing, it smelled fine so after we were finished unloading trash we loaded up on pizzas. We were poor college students and just couldn't pass this tasty bonanza.

We ate one for lunch and found it to be delicious so we got on the phone and invited a house full of friends for a pizza party. The friends brought beer to assist in washing down the freebies and we had a great party at absolutely no cost to ourselves. After gorging ourselves we divulged the source of the pizzas and several guests became somewhat agitated but no one was sickened by the pies.

Thank you Kroger for your contribution to one of the best parties I ever attended.

@oldbanjo Sad day for dumpster diving. Reminds me diving for boxes of unopened chips and passing em out to the homeless that walked past my place. There was a documentary called Dive! about the "Freegan" movement. Possibly that's what you were thinking?

There is a union of 'dumpster diver's' in every country and they are like eagles who do us all a favor. Let them 'dive' in peace I say.

fuck it , i give away food at the establishment i work for..
we technically donate , so i give it to whoever is hungry .
I hate wasting food and it disgusting that companies throw out so much food when there are so many starving people.
But they dont make profit that way and thats what its truly all about , please dont kid yourself into thinking any of these companies actually care.

That was a waste for tax money and police time.

Sad but not unlike our own country, when i was younger working Fast Food we had a massive locked dumpster for food only, i asked the question why do we care about food we have put in the trash? answer : was no one eats for free, i said but we have already written this off as a loss what is the point? Answer: no one eats for free this was in 1988.

There was a show on TV about people in the USA getting their food from Dumpsters, There's a name for it but I can't remember the name. Some of these people have money and just believe that people should not be throwing away good food. It should be legal but it isn't even in the USA.

read the post and still cannot believe this happen.

"Theft by finding" what the f#%@&!!!!! English law is so very ROYAL! American law is based on that silly assed English version of the rich own everything and best not touch or we'll have you beheaded!

"theft by finding." what happened to finders keepers?

Glad I don't live in their country.

WOW!! Theft by finding was the charge?!?!??? Are you kidding me, thats a crime. They should go arrest all the people that work at there prestigious musuems them for 'finding' all the stuff they have in them. The people throwing all that food out should be arrested for wreckless wasting.....

I can't believe that some people are this evil!

Are you serious? Will there be articles from the National Enquirer or Weekly World News in the future?

I've searched, but am unable to find a source for this story that I know to be credible. Does anyone know of one?

Oh goodness! Has no one at Tesco ever read Dickens? Is this Tesco's version of Les Misérables and this lady has to do 19 years? Where's that Monty Python no nonsense colonel to step in and declare this all to be too silly?

I think it was the part about the thief working for a rival supermarket that triggered the arrest. But she shouldn't have been arrested. She should have been sued. Tesco must be run by morons, both for throwing away the food and for sending the cops to bust someone over taking discarded food.

Bundlebear, I'm glad to see someone else indulges in the guilty pleasure of the Daily Mail. It's sooo tabloid, and to my great shame, I love it.

How in the world did they know where she lived? Did Tesco have someone follow her?

Sad state of the world. I don't think that as a police officer, I would have been able to bring myself to arrest the woman. I couldn't do it. If the woman is taking spoiled food from the garbage, she obviously needs it.

Right, so they are willing to arrest people over this but when people eat at taco bell or white castle thats ok? I'm sure the quality of that garbage food was much higher than most fast food. The people they should really be arresting are those that profusely eat fast food. A fit survivalist is a better human than a fat consumer.

This woman is part of a growing class of criminal, the Eaters. Those who eat have been found to be responsible for 100% of modern crimes. If we let them eat food, the next thing we know, they'll be slitting our throats and driving away in our cars!

Panera Bread Company locally gives away several huge bags of baked goods every day to a different charity each day of the week. They would deliver it to us and I would take bags of it with me when I went to see the eldery for home health. They loved the free bread, rolls, bagels and cakes. It was a nice thing to do when they could have went all Tesco and just dumped it.

I was at Whole Foods late one night, and they started throwing away all of the sandwiches they had in their cases. I said, "Why are you throwing that perfectly good food away? Why don't you give it to homeless people or people who can take it home?" " We can't," they said, "we have to dispose of it because somebody who was homeless and got our food sued us, so our policy is now that nobody can have it." "Unfrigging believable," I said! They all shook their heads in agreement and shame.

What BS!!! these cops need to check their priorities, specially when a women and her kids are living on £600 a month. What assholes!!!!!!

Here in Florida many grocery stores donate their out of date goods to local wildlife animal rescue organizations. Some of the food is only day old bread or slightly bruised vegis or fruits. There is no reason that edible food should go to waste when there are so many humans and animals in need.
I'm certain there are organizations in or near Essex that could use the food, as well as this poor woman who was clearly in need.
For shame Tesco.

After reading about the poor woman's circumstances, this story
sounds like a modern day version of Les Miserables. And what
makes it all the more absurd is, across the channel in France,
many people obtain perfectly useable bread, vegetables, etc.
in exactly this way. But in the UK one can be Arested by picking
up money found on the street. One soul found a cell phone
another had dropped, and when he handed it to police, was
Arrested. It still defies the main body of English law though,
only since 1968 when it got Royal Assent from the Crown. Still
sounds too absolutist to me though. The common law on
salvage might be in conflict with this theft by finding charge,
because TESCO abandoned this property outside in waste
barrels.

The UK common law defining Larceny still isn't that much
different than our New York Statute defining the m.o. of
Larceny as intent to deprive ownership by withholding.
So unless other UK laws state that all garbage is the property
of the Government or recycling stations or waste haulers etc.
this still sounds like a misapplication of the law by ignorant
people. Because the modern recodification of Larceny did
force the repeal of other laws involving Fraud, there has to
be an element of deception or dishonesty involved. And there
can be no dishonesty here unless the person deliberately
switched off the refrigeration breakers to compromise the
freshness of the food for resale, and manipulate Tesco to
dump and abandon their property. If that were true, those
prosecuting the case would have to prove Trespass to
effect sabotage. I didn't read any facts that would infer that.

Hanafords Supermarkets donate their good cast offs to meal sites and councils on aging. They aren't the best food market but they get my business for their generosity and rationality. It makes a difference to some elders.

that's so fucked up! Orwell would roll in his grave if he knew what England is becoming.

This is a teaching moment. She is on a career path - as a private investigator. She needs to learn not to get caught.

Dumpster diving should NOT be illegal but it is in my town. To me if you don't want people dumpster diving in your dumpsters add a damn lock to them.

They are so messed up.

That is truly heartless!!

" . . .theft by finding" ? What nut-ball law is that !?!

I'm not familiar with UK law but here in America, before the good samaritan law was passed, stores would avoid distributing questionable products to protect themselves from possible lawsuits.

Your tax dollars at work Brits.

"We seek to minimize waste in all our stores and where possible will seek to reuse and recycle it."
So they were just storing this food until nobody was looking and then they were going to reuse it. Hmmm?

Doesn't it go to show how much big business will oppose the public benefiting if they can't profit from it?

Really? Now we are going to arrest people for eating out of the garbage? It was on the STREET. How is that stealing? I don't know the law in the UK but here if it hits the curb it is public domain. This is too much. The economy sucks, there are no jobs, but we are going to go around arresting people because they are poor. Wake me up already cause this nightmare is just too much.

Isn't there a type of vegetarian that only eats left over food, Freegans (i think)?